Working to Give: Philanthropies & Philanthropic Work

In an inspiring collaboration, Lisa Ford and her husband Bill, the Executive Chair of Ford Motor Co., have launched a visionary campaign to bolster the future of Detroit-based youth organizations. In partnership with The Children’s Foundation, the Fords aim to secure a minimum of $10 million to establish permanent endowments for ten deserving nonprofits focused on serving the city’s younger population.

Endowments offer increased financial stability, allowing nonprofits to draw annual returns to support their operations. The chosen Detroit nonprofits will be announced in June. They will each receive $500,000 that will enable them to launch an endowment, and they will have the opportunity to grow the endowment through matching contributions and fundraising efforts.

Lisa Ford’s approach was shaped by prior successful fundraising endeavors and a belief in the power of collaboration to effect meaningful change. The campaign’s innovative approach to endowment selection will involve community input, emphasizing a broad spectrum of services eligible for support. The initiative seeks to challenge the norm, where only a fraction of nonprofits are privileged to have endowments. Experts in the field of philanthropy advocate for endowments as a means of ensuring generational equity and organizational stability.

By fostering a financially secure environment for youth-focused nonprofits, the Fords and The Children’s Foundation aim to create a lasting impact, ensuring these vital organizations can continue their work for generations to come.

In Wilmington, Delaware, a unique initiative by first-grade teacher Brooke Hughes at Hanby Elementary School, is improving student literacy. The Foster Tales Puppy Therapy program integrates foster puppies into the classroom to aid in students’ reading development. This program has brought joy and excitement to the classroom, and has also shown promising results in enhancing reading skills.

The foster puppy program began in January 2023. Hughes, who was inspired by her own experience fostering puppies during the COVID-19 pandemic, decided to bring puppies into the learning space. She immediately observed a significant positive impact on the students’ mental health and reading abilities.

The program encourages students to read to the puppies, who serve as a non-judgmental audience and boosted the confidence of the new readers. Hughes reported a notable increase in reading scores, with preliminary data indicating a 32% improvement from fall to winter. This uplift in academic performance is particularly significant against the backdrop of declining reading and math scores nationwide, a trend which was exacerbated by the pandemic.

The initiative has extended beyond academic benefits, fostering life skills such as responsibility, empathy, and compassion among students. The classroom dynamic has improved, with students eagerly completing their work in order to get a chance to spend time with the puppies. The program also involves the school community, with families volunteering to care for the puppies outside school hours, and Rags 2 Riches Animal Rescue covering the costs associated with the puppies’ care.

This collaborative effort between Hanby Elementary School and Rags 2 Riches Animal Rescue has not only provided a therapeutic and enriching experience for the students but also offered a lifeline for over 50 foster puppies, facilitating their adoption into permanent homes. The program stands as a testament to the innovative approaches educators can take to address educational challenges and foster a love for learning in students, all while contributing positively to the community and the well-being of animals in need.

This collaborative effort between Hanby Elementary School and Rags 2 Riches Animal Rescue has not only provided a therapeutic and enriching experience for the students but also offered a lifeline for over 50 foster puppies, facilitating their adoption into permanent homes. The program stands as a testament to the innovative approaches educators can take to address educational challenges and foster a love for learning in students, all while contributing positively to the community and the well-being of animals in need.

The Penguins Foundation has unveiled an exclusive Pittsburgh Penguins WubbaNub, a combination of a baby pacifier and plush animal, designed to be easy for infants to grasp.  This useful toy is now available for $20, with all proceeds going to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Penguins forward Jake Guentzel has announced that he will buy the first 100 Penguins WubbaNubs as gifts, making a donation of $5,000 to UPMC Children’s Hospital. These unique pacifiers, adorned with the team’s NHL-licensed logo and a special healing heart design, are part of an effort to provide comfort to the hospital’s youngest patients. Guentzel’s Hearts of Gold program, aimed at supporting children with heart conditions, has been paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Guentzel said, “I look forward to meeting so many fans each year through my Hearts of Gold program… I wanted to do something to stay connected and still benefit the patients at UPMC Children’s.  The WubbaNubs are a great way to give our tiniest fans some comfort right now.”

The holiday season can be a joyous, wonderful time but it can also be a very hard one for many people. This year, some big names in the music industry are using their talent to bring cheer to others, and to raise money for important charities.

Elton John and Ed Sheeran have recently teamed up with a charity single called “Merry Christmas” that was just released by Asylum/Atlantic. Jason Koenig has directed the accompanying video.

The song was written by many superstars and was produced by Steve Mac.

All publishing royalties and sales will be donated equally to the Ed Sheeran Suffolk Music Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

A fascinating study looking at the differences in giving for affluent Americans over 40, versus Millennial and Gen Z donors has found some really interesting changes. The study, the 2021 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy: charitable Giving by Affluent Households, looked at more than 1600 American homes.

The major shift they noticed is one away from giving to organizations and towards issues. Younger people are looking at issues of climate change, race relations and other issues and are putting their money into fixing these crises, rather than to giving to organizations, as older people to to do. Researchers also discovered that givers are using Venmo and GoFundMe for their charitable gifts and engaging in much more direct giving. They also found that women, in particular, give to crowdfunding campaigns more than men.

They also found that approximately 90% of affluent Americans gave to charity in 2020. Volunteering was definitely down in 2020 because of the pandemic; however, interestingly, Americans who did give their time gave twice as much money to charitable causes than did those who did not volunteer.

The study is certainly worth seeing and understanding in more depth.